Eggless Christmas fruit cake

Christmas is a time of the year, where Christmas fruit cake is a must.

Myself I am not a lover of fruit cake. I can go from starving to full as soon as I hear fruit cake. My parents are huge lovers of fruit cake anytime of the year.

Last year’s Christmas fruit cake was a disaster. Everyone in the house agreed, since we were having an assortment of puddings for dessert and no cake was needed, and then the bombshell dropped. Christmas would be on a fasting day for my mother, which wasn’t surprising at all. I mean the women fasts 5 out of 7 days.

I decided to stay up Christmas Eve and bake the cake, without planning or preparation. I had half the spice ingredients, I mean I didn’t even have brown sugar, I had to use white sugar. The cake was burnt on the top and the middle was still runny raw, that put me off making a fruit cake again, until this year.

I made sure I had extra ingredients on hand and I was planned and ready a week before Christmas. I bake the cake 3 days before Christmas, which gave me enough time to try it again, if the cake did not go according to plan. Thank my lucky Christmas stars it went A Okay.

Ingredients:

1 x cup light brown caramel sugar.

1 x cup raisons.

1 x cup saltanas.

1 x cup cranberries.

1 x cup mixed fruit cake mix.

2 x ounces chopped dates.

1 x tbsp. lemon juice.

1 x zest of an orange.

1 1/3 x cup boiling water.

½ x pound rama margarine.

2 x tsp bicarbonate of soda.

2 x tsp vanilla essence.

2 x tsp cinnamon powder.

2 x tsp all spice powder.

2 x tsp nutmeg powder.

1 x tsp baking powder.

3 x cups, sifted self-raising powder.

2 x tsp salt.

5 x tbsp. cooking oil.

½ x cup orange juice.

150g x maraschino cherries, halved.

1 x cup glazed red cherries and blanched almonds for decoration.

Method:

In a pot, bring ingredients 1-10 to the boil. Allow to bubble away for 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Add the bicarbonate of soda, and stir till the mixture becomes fizzed.

Allow the mixture to cool for about 15 minutes.

Pour into the bowl of your food process with the paddle attachment attached.